An applicant received AOR in August 2023, married on 1 January 2024, updated marital status the same day, and submitted the spouse's documents when IRCC asked. Then the PR portal requested their photo and address 'within 7 days' — before the spouse had been assessed. Should they finalize?
Members' answer was unambiguous:
- Do not finalize while your spouse is not yet added and assessed. The most serious warning in the thread: once you finalize the portal and your CoPR is generated without your spouse, you can never sponsor them later — an undeclared, unexamined spouse at landing is excluded from future sponsorship.
- The pre-marriage decision no longer stands alone. Because the marriage happened before a final decision, the spouse must be added to the application; a decision made on the single-status file isn't valid for the new family composition.
- Respond, don't silently ignore the 7-day request. Rather than either finalizing or letting the deadline lapse, members advised sending a webform or calling IRCC to state again that you married after AOR and that your spouse's documents are in processing, so the portal request should wait.
- Keep the paper trail. The applicant's pattern — same-day marital-status update, prompt document submission, acknowledged receipt — is exactly the record you want if questions arise later.
Practical takeaway: a portal finalization request is not an obligation to complete it when your family composition has changed mid-process. Declare, add, and wait for the spouse's assessment; finalizing early can permanently cost your spouse their sponsorship eligibility.